This last weekend we took a quick trip to Crested Butte, Colorado to visit my sister Angie and attend her son, Anders’ baptism. Angie is the only Stewart sibling not living in Utah…Angie, you rebel! I don’t know how she lives so far away from CIVILIZATION…though it is gorgeous and peaceful.

Ashton and Emmy had so much fun with Angie’s kids. The first day, we hung out at Angie’s, talked, laughed and had a birthday party for Anders (and Angie…They have the same birthday but Ang, of course, allows Anders have all the attention). She made a ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME cake which is just totally ANGIE and CREATIVE. It was Angie’s 33rd birthday and if you flip the first three over and you get an 8 (Ander’s 8th birthday)! GENIUS.

The Birthday Kids

Grandpa and Emmy eating cake

Emmy getting kisses from Grammy

Ashton was playing Star Wars with Anders the WHOLE time.

At the hotel. Emmy is too big to sleep in the portable crib these days! Crazy! She was excited to sleep in the big bed. Ashton was more excited to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor which is where he ended up.

The next day we met everyone at a vacation house Shawn rented for the fam. The kids had a blast. There was a cool little loft to play in…

Lots of places for the adults to talk, but the staircase was quite comfy

Ang and Shawn (and Cari) made breakfast for all of us

SOME of the kids eating

Aaaand the adult session of breakfast

I wondered why all the kids were so quiet and we were enjoying such peace…They were all in the living room watching Mufasa get trampled by wildebeests (and apparently that IS how you spell wildebeest…weird). They were all in shock..I wanted to put that scene on repeat for a few hours.

Josh actually missed out on all of the morning festivities. We left him at the hotel working on his talk for the next day. We picked him up and had a little picnic on the church lawn while we waited for everyone to get there. Isn’t Josh cute???

Anders’ baptism was fabulous. I am always excited for Ashton to witness such events. He came away from the font and said “Mom, that was AWESOME!” At the pool this week, he showed me how to baptize him. Cute.

We spent all of yesterday’s perfectly gorgeous hot and sunny afternoon running errands and going to my baby check-up appt. Every time we got into the car, Ashton would say, “Mom, it is soooo hot! We should go swimming!” So I PROMISED him that we would go today. Welp, wouldn’t you know it, the skies were cloudy and the wind was a’blowin’ all morning, though it was still hot and sunny every once in a while.

Josh and I always make sure we do whatever we say we will do, especially pertaining to our kiddos. So after lunch we went swimming. I thought we’d drive there, have it start raining and then just come home but hey, what else would we do all afternoon???

Even though we had more clouds than sun, it was still warm and we played for two hours! We left just as the last sunshine of the day was swallowed up by storm clouds.

“Amish Friendship Bread”…What a horribly named food! It should be called “Amish Self-Esteem Bread.” This little loaf of doughnut is so packed with calories that as you eat it you can actually watch your butt grow. It’s like a hand grenade of fat. If you keep it, you destroy your own self-esteem by watching yourself swell in the mirror. If you give it away you can trick your “friends” into getting fatter than you and make yourself feel better in the process.

My sister offered me a starter for this bread a few weeks ago. My first reaction was, “Sure, but I’ll just throw it away after I forget to do anything with it for a week.” But she reminded me how absolutely delicious it is and I took a starter off her hands. How FRIENDLY of her.

So I mushed the starter for a few days and added junk to it. I followed the simple instructions until I could finally bake my two loaves of bread and create starters to give to three friends – hence the name “Amish FRIENDSHIP Bread”. Well, within half a day, those two loaves of bread had been devoured! Not only by myself, but my kids were CRAZY about it. When Ashton finished the last piece, he almost cried. We were all very sad that it would be TEN MORE DAYS before the next batch could be made.

Then and there I became an addict and made a commitment to NEVER be without Amish Friendship Bread again! So those three starters that I was supposed to give away were cared for and mushed by myself for ten more days. Then I made six more loaves (I don’t know what happened to them but they aren’t here anymore) and kept two starters for myself. I know, the Amish math isn’t adding up, but whatever. Cari and I have tried to figure out a way to cheat the system but that Amish math is haaaaard (and Cari is even a math GENIUS!).

Well, yesterday Emmy and I made four more loaves…(not pictured – Emmy licking the counter where the batter dripped, licking the spoon clean, then sticking her whole head in the bowl to lick the sides before I could stop her. It’s a drug, I tell you!)

I KNOW!!! I KNOW!!!! I have a huge problem and I am finally ready to admit it and take control of the situation. This time, I didn’t keep ANY starters! I threw away all opportunities for me to ever make more of this incredibly delicious treat again. I know that is extremely SELFISH of me not to even give starters to my friends but look! I would know WHERE to go for MORE starters! I had to destroy all my resources. I’m pretty sure this is part of the 12-Step Program.

Here’s the problem…My Butt! In a study performed in 2004, researchers discovered that the Amish had very low rates of obesity even though they had extremely high calorie diets. The difference between them and us is they walk an average of 5 miles per day, whereas we walk about five steps. Here I am 8 1/2 months pregnant and my butt and everything else is getting bigger by the second and I know this loaf of doughnut is completely to blame. So it must end NOW, I am quitting cold turkey….right after I eat these last four loaves.

For my birthday, Ashton insisted that he needed to go to Best Buy to find me a present. While Josh was returning something at the customer service counter, Ashton was doing his own shopping. By the time Josh finished at customer service Ashton was on his way to checkout with gift in hand and a very helpful and impressed employee in tow. Ashton was holding a box for Wii Karaoke. Apparently he had walked right up to the worker and explained how he wanted to get a game for the Wii for his Mom. So the employee showed him where the Wii games were located. Ashton knew just what he wanted and walked right over to the Karaoke game, announced that it was perfect and they were heading to the front of the store.

So the other night, Josh and the kids busted it out. It was way cute….